Free PlayStation Plus causing issues: 'I really don't want this'

Sony has just started crediting PlayStation users’ accounts with five extra days of PlayStation Plus… which is terrible news for those of you who were hoping to actually save some money down the line.

Last month on February 7, the PlayStation Network was down for roughly 21 hours. It’s not the first time this has happened and it almost definitely won’t be the last, but it was the longest recorded stretch of PlayStation Network downtime in quite some time.

Did you see the news that Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 and 4 are making their triumphant return?

To apologise, Sony announced that players would be getting five days of PlayStation Plus at no extra cost. It seems that day has finally come, as players online are reporting that their accounts have been automatically credited with the extra five days.

This has, quite understandably, annoyed quite a lot of people - due entirely to the fact that it’s being automatically added to players’ accounts.

“I really don't want this, it affected my last sub, not my resubbed one,” commented user Ryzel0o0o.

“It'll most likely put me outside the range for the next February sale. Why do I run the risk of being penalized when I'm being "compensated"?”

“If they had done this in the form of a redeemable code for each region then it would've been up to the user to decide whether to claim it or not,” replied user kabirsingh84.

“I don't think you can do anything about this but maybe you can try contacting support to see if they can reverse it if it gets added.”

So why is this such an issue? Well, the PlayStation Store February sale is set to launch in a matter of days.

Sony likes to do this (frankly underhanded) thing where they offer the best deals on PlayStation Plus subscriptions to users whose subscriptions have expired. As a result, users try to time it so that their subscriptions expire before the February sale is set to start.

That means that if these extra five days push your subscription beyond the end of the February sale, you won’t be able to take advantage of this offer when it appears.

Hopefully players will be able to redeem the PlayStation Plus subscription offers regardless, but I’m not holding my breath.